School of Computing and Information Systems

ACE Learning Trip to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

This story is written by Cheah King Yeh, 2020 Intake

As part of the School of Computing and Information Systems (SCIS) ACE Programme, 10 students from SCIS embarked on this enriching learning journey to Ho Chi Minh City, the economical and business powerhouse of Vietnam from 5 to 11 May 2024 to gain a better appreciation of the business and technopreneurship scene within the country. Many of us were excited to go for this trip as it was our first time visiting Vietnam!

Upon our arrival at Ho Chi Minh City, we first visited a few cultural sightseeing places, including the Ben Thanh Market and had our first taste of Vietnamese coffee, as well as heading out to the Nguyen Hue Walking Street where we were serenaded by live music and street performances.

For our first office visit on Day 1, we met up with 3 SCIS alumni from Vietnam, (Ken, Phan and Khoa)  who co-founded INKR Global whilst still studying in SCIS back in 2010. We learnt about the tech products that they had built, and also understood more about their flagship product, which was a one-stop comic platform to help comics publishers and creators reach more readers globally while making amazing content available to readers from all over the world, through their innovative usage of AI to address pain points in digitalisation of manga and translation, as well as sharing of how they used cloud computing and on-premise servers to ensure reliability while managing scalability and costs effectively. We were also excited to learn that they were the creators of MangaRock as well, which was a popular application for users to read manga when the platform was still live.


Us with the co-founders of INKRI

We then proceeded to the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City-International School of Business (UEH-ISB) campus, where we were brought on a campus tour around the school complex, followed by a sharing session from students of both SCIS and UEH-ISB. We learnt more about the student life in UEH-ISB, and were pleasantly surprised when we learnt that some students had actually visited the SMU campus a few months prior to our trip, and toured around Singapore as well. We then played some games with one another to foster a better intercultural understanding of both the Vietnamese and Singaporean culture, while also getting to know one another better through these icebreaker games.

 
Syahmi and King Yeh sharing about student life in SMU

For our next office visit, we visited SoBanHang, a technology startup which was initially developing a product to digitalise the bookkeeping process for small businesses in Vietnam. However, we learnt that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they held a 2-week hackathon to create an MVP, and pivoted their original idea away to instead address the issues of helping physical stores in Vietnam create an online presence and managing their sales channel. We also learnt about their go-to market strategy, as well as discussed their freemium pricing strategy to attract businesses to use their platform. We also met up with Yao Wee, an SCIS alumni, who had kindly shared with us his experiences in SMU as well as in CMU, and also his working experiences post-graduation, which spanned across the United States, Singapore as well as here in Vietnam.

Us @ VNG Campus

We then visited the VNG Corporation Campus, where we were given an introduction of the history of VNG, and learnt more about its company branding and culture, as well as the myriad of products it provides, including VNGGames, Zalo and ZaloPay. We were also given an office tour around the complex and saw how the company used facial recognition AI systems as a convenient way to manage employees’ movement in and out of the compound, as well as for collecting items from the pantry. Finally, we were given a detailed sharing on the fintech history in Vietnam, market positioning of competitors within the fintech industry in Vietnam, as well as a brief outlook and potential challenges faced by the Vietnamese fintech industry. We were also given a walkthrough of the ZaloPay application, understanding its product features and integration into the overall Zalo ecosystem and we gained a better understanding of how ZaloPay wishes to position itself to stand out from its competitors. 


Trying our hands at Internet gaming at the GEMS Esports 3.0 Internet Cafe

We then visited the GEMS Esports Internet Cafe, where we talked to Andy, who had moved to Vietnam for nearly 10 years. Andy shared with us a lot of his personal experiences and challenges in starting a business in Vietnam, while also giving his own perspective on the future of esports gaming and blockchain technology. We learnt a great deal about the esports scene within Vietnam and the Southeast Asia region, while also understanding more about his business model and approach into combining blockchain technology into the esports gaming ecosystem.

We were also fortunate to be invited to an entrepreneurship sharing session held by the Singapore Chamber of Commerce Vietnam, where we learnt about the intricacies of navigating around how to do business in Vietnam, as well as understanding the importance of having the right mindset and also the potential exciting opportunities to start a business in Vietnam.


Meals with alumni

We also met up with a few alumni, Minh, Bobby and Quan, who shared with us more about their experiences post-SMU. Minh brought one of her colleagues from BNP Paribas down to share more about how technology is used within the bank and also discussed how the bank ensures data integrity, speed as well as reliability for its end-users. We also discussed how the bank designs its architecture to ensure a balance between on-premise and cloud computing servers, while also ensuring that security was not compromised at any point of a transaction. Minh also shared her experiences post-SMU, and why she chose to work in the Global Markets desk upon graduation. Bobby shared with us his personal experiences, and also some of his thoughts and reflections almost a decade after graduating from SMU. We were very elated to find out that he was a TikTok influencer within Vietnam who produced content about his time whilst in Singapore, and we also got to know more about his current job role as a Creator Strategist in TikTok Shop. Quan shared with us the many challenges he faced while trying to study overseas, and also gave us a very fresh perspective on the importance of education, and his experiences post-SMU of which he was very grateful to be able to have the opportunity to study in SMU and change his perspective on life whilst studying overseas. To cap things off, we also enjoyed a shared dinner with some of our SMU alumni currently living in Vietnam.

The following day, we visited the Grab Vietnam office, and learnt about the tech products which the Vietnam office was building for Grab, and also learnt about the differences in the service offerings provided in Vietnam compared to Singapore, most notably GrabBike! (It’s really very safe to ride on a GrabBike – I booked it and rode it across the highway and it was perfectly fine) We also learnt how Grab operates within Vietnam, and also more about the recruitment process for Grab in Vietnam.


​​​​​​​Outside the MapleTree Business Centre where Grab office is located

Following which, we visited the War Remnants Museum and gained a better appreciation and understanding of Vietnamese history and culture over the past 50 years since the conclusion of the Vietnam War, which served as a solemn reminder for us that the peace and stability we enjoy in Singapore should not be taken for granted.

We then visited Sentry, which was a coworking space that used to be owned by Wework. However, upon the collapse of Wework, Sentry took over the coworking space by Wework and redesigned the layout of its coworking spaces, gaining popularity and winning multiple awards within Vietnam with its provision of multiple facilities and amenities within its coworking space.


Exploring Vietnamese culture @ Mekong Delta

On our last day, we embarked on an adventure to the Mekong Delta to take a break from the busy city of Ho Chi Minh and explore a more local culture of Vietnam. After taking a 2-hour coach ride from Ho Chi Minh city to Tien Giang, we got on a boat to Con Phung island in Ben Tre. Here, we got to see how the local bees are raised, how coconut candies are manufactured and try out some of the snacks such as honey green tea, dried honey coated bananas, coconut candies etc. We also got to experience the local form of singing, ‘cai luong nam bo’, while enjoying the fruits grown in the region. We also got to experience many interesting activities such as horse riding, enjoying a boat ride along a stream, and crocodile fishing. After finishing our lunch full of Vietnamese local dishes, we head back to Ho Chi Minh to cap off our amazing trip in Vietnam.

Overall, it was a very insightful and enriching experience to be able to embark on this trip, as we learnt a lot about the Vietnamese culture (even experiencing them firsthand ourselves), and also understood the exciting business opportunities that lie within Ho Chi Minh City, especially as the country begins to embark on its digital transformation journey. I am confident that all of us returned home with our hearts full from the warmth and friendliness afforded to us by the Vietnamese and definitely took away many precious learning experiences that were only available through this outside-the-classroom learning journey!